ASTORIA FOOD COOP?
As
October arrives and I find myself contemplating things like “We only have two
more Lewis-Waite deliveries.” [Deadline for Oct 11 delivery is Oct 6th
by midnight!] And “Soon it will be
over and I will have to buy veggies from somewhere…???” I remember with longing
my brief but wonderful 6 months as a member of the Park Slope Food Coop. There are many things I love about Astoria,
but sadly the quality of produce and protein is not among them. Our options tend to be either overpriced
industrial organics, or insipid bargain basement conventionals. Sai, who runs arguably the best natural
market in the area, does not carry animal products. Whereas the lucky members of the PSFC can purchase “a wide variety of products, including local, organic and
conventionally grown produce; pasture-raised and grass-fed meat; free-range,
organic and kosher poultry; fair-traded chocolate and coffee; wild and
sustainably farmed fish; supplements and vitamins; imported and artisan cheese;
freshly baked bread; bulk grains and spices; environmentally safe cleaning
supplies, and much more. All of this, plus a large selection of standard
supermarket items, makes the Coop a one-stop shopping destination. Sales are
brisk at the PSFC and our inventory is replenished more than once every week,
ensuring that the products we sell are as fresh as possible.” (from
their website: http://foodcoop.com/go.php?page=home )
The Park
Slope Food Coop began in 1973 distributing food cooperatively once a week, like
a CSA. It has grown and evolved over the past 34 years and currently boasts a
membership in excess of 12,000. Joe
Holtz, the General Manager and a founding member described their beginnings:
We put
up some flyers and got some people together who were interested in eating
better food than we could really afford.
We arranged to use the offices of an anti-Vietnam war group on Saturday
afternoons, when they weren’t using them, and when people came to pick up their
food we would ask them if they wanted to work next week. Eventually we had a hard time getting people
to work and so the work requirement became mandatory.
This
work requirement distinguishes the Park Slope Food Coop from most other coops,
which are open to the general public and have different pricing schemes for the
public and working members. At Park
Slope only members can shop at the coop, membership is of course open to
everyone, and all members not on disability or another form of leave work a
shift of 2 ¾ hours a month. The work
rules can seem byzantine when you first read through them, but they have
evolved to address the needs of the coop over time. For example, the rule requires two shifts be worked to compensate
for one shift that was missed. This is because the value of scheduled shifts is
greater and otherwise the store is too often over or under staffed, and there
needed to be a system that would reflect that and encourage people to work
their scheduled shifts. If there is
anything people don’t like about the coop, it is probably the work
requirement. But by having the vast
majority of the work of running the store done by members the coop saves an
enormous amount of money in payroll and benefits for workers, which translates
into considerably lower prices.
The
prices range from 20% to 40% below what you would pay elsewhere, depending on
how you shop. This can add up to a
significant decrease in your cost of living if, for example, you are raising a
family. Or if you are single and like
to throw parties and cook a lot. In any
case, no matter who you are, you live in New York so anything that can send the
cost of living downwards, it seems to me, is worth a second look.
So I
visited the Coop recently with Liz, our intrepid site coordinator, and Mr.
Holtz gave us a tour. They have been
transitioning 
to grass fed and sustainable meat, eliminating as
many of the Horizon products as they can (except for the few items that are
only available from Horizon) and I regret to say we did not discuss the
seafood. There was a chart in the
produce section showing which items were local. The quality was spectacular, which is as I remember it from
several years ago. One of my favorite
things shopping there were the spices. They
were the freshest and most potent I’ve encountered in any market other than one
devoted to spices, due to the high turnover.
And rather than having standard jars that would set you back $4-5 for
each spice they were packaged in small bags in small amounts, some costing as
little as a quarter. This made it so
easy to try new spices and experiment without inflating my grocery bill beyond
all reason, and also to buy multiples for a complicated recipe but not feel
that the rest might just languish in the back of my cabinet until the next time
I move. I remember how sad I felt when
the last of my coop spices were gone after my move here to Astoria, and my
spice cabinet has never been as fragrant since.
Another
issue we discussed with Mr. Holtz was the issue of transparency. A grocer who is trying to make a living has
a motivation to sell his wares at as high a price as his market will bear. If people will pay premium prices for an
item there is a motivation to present a lesser quality version as the premium
item. For example an article by Marion
Burros published on April 10, 2005 in the New York Times revealed that of
several stores selling “wild” salmon on the cusp of the season only one was
actually selling wild salmon. This
holds true for many other variations on the theme of natural, organic,
grass-fed, free range or any other appellation that is likely to result in both
a higher quality and a higher price. At a place like the Coop, which is run by
its members there is no motivation to inflate prices.
While
currently there aren’t other coops built on the model of the Park Slope Food
Coop, there are several in the developing stages. Many traditional coops are struggling to compete with stores like
Whole Foods, and as organic foods have become more corporate, the prices have
come down and they have become more available in supermarkets this has chipped
away at the customer base of non-members.
And the two (or more) tiered pricing does not fully remove the profit
motive from the distribution of food.
If the living that is being made from the store is shared by everyone
who shops there, it enriches the entire community, not just the owner of the
store.
It
is my humble opinion that we have a community here in Astoria that contains the
skills and interest to start a coop. I
have been thinking about the incredible interest in this CSA, the waiting list,
Hellgate CSA and also the others in nearby neighborhoods, like Sunnyside and
Jackson Heights. We also have an active movement to bring a greenmarket to
Astoria, another indicator that we need more options than we currently
have. There are many many people in
this area who are unsatisfied with the food that is available to them through
supermarkets and even, clearly, health food stores. Additionally there is a large population of people on fixed or
low incomes who would greatly benefit from the availability of affordable high
quality food.
Things
are more complicated now and it will take more than some flyers and a few
willing hippies to get a coop going, but I think we can do it. I’d like to encourage anyone interested to
visit their website, they have links to other coops and some more general info
about the cooperative movement as well.
Then, please send your email address and some brief information about
yourself (i.e.: would you be willing to be part of a core organizing
group? What special skills do you have
to offer that could help to move things forward? Do you have any previous experience either starting or being a
member of a coop?) And anything else, including general comments and advice to astoriafoodcoop@gmail.com.
on the table October 4, 2007
